"What's the Catch - Do I Not Get Bacon?" - 11/27 - TR started!

[teekathepony]

Thanks! I am not too worried about it. I will be satisfied going for lunch if we can't get in for dinner. Your reservations look great!!!!! We are also going to BOMA our first night for dinner.

I'd love to try lunch there too, it looks like such an interesting experience.
Our paths just might cross!!

I'm here!!! Yay!!!

Okay, now I'm caught up. Awesome that you guys are staying at AKL! I love love love that resort. And you should definitely make sure that you take full advantage of the fact that you're staying there and eat at Boma. I don't judge! I hope you'll like dinner. It's one of my favorites.

Also, awesome that you got BOG. I didn't encounter any problems when I was booking it for July, so I was confident you weren't going to have any issues.

YAY!! So glad you could make it!
I'm so excited for AKL, I've been dreaming about it for a long time! I hope we like dinner at Boma, I am confident that we will. Dining reports look promising!
BOG was occupying the majority of my brain for like a month, happy we got it with no issues!

Girl - you rock! Not only for getting BOG and great ADRs, but for already writing your first photography lesson.

I love it! I love that you did great examples with it. I never change the f-stop. I only ever manipulate shutter speed. I am going to try these lessons now. Thank you. You did a perfect job explaining it!

Are you using shutter priority mode? Or manual? Just curious. If you use shutter priority (Tv) mode, you control the shutter and your camera automatically picks the aperture.
I'm glad you liked lesson one! Lesson two is in the works.

I have got a bit behind on your report

Congrats on your BOG reservation and actually all your meal plans are great.

I'd love as many tips as poss on the camera - your explanation of aperture etc made perfect sense and I am going to study it properly at the weekend and see if I can figure out how to do it with my oldish camera now.

Thanks heaps for doing that - my trip is only a few weeks away and hopefully i can take some much better photos instead of just point and hope.

Thanks! So glad we got BOG with no issues.
I find a lot of photography explanations online are really technical for most people and I remember I had a hard time learning the terms when I was first starting, so I like to try to simplify it and make it make sense. Glad you liked the lesson I hope I can get another lesson in before you go

Great ADRs! We love Boma and have never hone to breakfast there.... I originally had it for our departure day but I think I want to go earlier in our trip.... Dinner is amazing! One of our favorite buffets in Disney. DH and I are not into the all you can eat part, but sampling so many different and well prepared foods. AKL and AK have some of my favorite food options I also want to go to Via Napoli, but decided for the Garden Grill instead (my traveling companions will enjoy it hehe) T Rex also looks like fun! And BOG... can't wait, I randomly saw one of this ADRs for our trip and I booked it - I was in shock and figured it was fate...
I LOVE Boma breakfast, and I'm really excited for dinner. We're the same, in it for the variety.
Lucky break on the BOG ADR!

I have a question for you, in Disney, what mode do you tend to shoot in? I was playing around with my camera yesterday (and ummm I love it. Tell your co worker, the change from the D70 is incredible) However, I had my kids out, and I was thinking how it might prove challenging in WDW to take pictures, spend time with my family and also just do the things I need to do... However, I'm not a fan of Auto in most cases, I did take some pictures in auto, and to me they were OK.... You know I might ask you a lot of questions I hope you don't mind, if you do just tell me to shush!

I never mind photography questions!~!
I shoot in different modes depending on my situation. Often in darker situations I use Shutter Priority, making sure that my shutter speed never goes slower than 1/60 which is in theory the slowest you can shoot handheld. On bright days outdoors I use my Program mode a lot because I don't want to be fussing with anything, unless I really need an effect like a shallow depth of field. For fireworks, always Manual. Other than that, I use the semi-auto modes all the time! I'm a photographer on vacation so I never want to feel like the photos are too much work, you know?
And I did tell my co-worker about the D7100. Hehehe he wants one!
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[we3travellers]

fellow canuck! I just found your PTR and love it! It even inspired me to read your last TR. I am half way through and it is also great. I just wanted to say hello and let you know I will be following you all the way through. We stayed at AKL for our first on site visit in 2010. It is magical! I can't wait to hear what you think. Congrats on getting your ADR's.

 

[disfanforlife]

Lunch does look great too! That would be fun if our path did cross. I have not had a chance to meet any DIs members yet. I am very excited about this trip because we did not go last year, so it will be two years in November since we have been to WDW. But we are making up for that a bit with another trip planned for March too now.

 

[SAT887]

I never mind photography questions!~!
I shoot in different modes depending on my situation. Often in darker situations I use Shutter Priority, making sure that my shutter speed never goes slower than 1/60 which is in theory the slowest you can shoot handheld. On bright days outdoors I use my Program mode a lot because I don't want to be fussing with anything, unless I really need an effect like a shallow depth of field. For fireworks, always Manual. Other than that, I use the semi-auto modes all the time! I'm a photographer on vacation so I never want to feel like the photos are too much work, you know?
And I did tell my co-worker about the D7100. Hehehe he wants one!

Thanks for sharing! I am just looking around for feedback. I took my DSLR in December and honestly, because I felt like the tour guide for our group (plus on mom duty) I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted. I also didn't have much time to play around with settings. I shot in P mode mostly. I need to get to your prior TRs to look at your pictures

 

[teekathepony]

fellow canuck! I just found your PTR and love it! It even inspired me to read your last TR. I am half way through and it is also great. I just wanted to say hello and let you know I will be following you all the way through. We stayed at AKL for our first on site visit in 2010. It is magical! I can't wait to hear what you think. Congrats on getting your ADR's.

Always happy to see a fellow canuck aboard!! Thanks for hopping in, and for catching up on my TR!
I hear so many good reviews of AKL, I can't even describe how excited I am!

Lunch does look great too! That would be fun if our path did cross. I have not had a chance to meet any DIs members yet. I am very excited about this trip because we did not go last year, so it will be two years in November since we have been to WDW. But we are making up for that a bit with another trip planned for March too now.

Well I might just break out my Lime Green Mickey Head in case we do cross paths... I still have it around here somewhere!

Thanks for sharing! I am just looking around for feedback. I took my DSLR in December and honestly, because I felt like the tour guide for our group (plus on mom duty) I didn't get to take as many pictures as I wanted. I also didn't have much time to play around with settings. I shot in P mode mostly. I need to get to your prior TRs to look at your pictures

I bet it would be harder to juggle with kids, I only need to keep track of my DH! And that's hard enough!
If you want to skip the TR, here are all my Disney pictures gathered in one place: My Flickr "Disney" Collection. They're all labelled, not all of the pictures are from my SLR of course but each picture says on the top right which camera it's out of.

 

[Suelala]

Just found your TR and I love it! Thanks for the camera tips! Trying to learn!
I love November at WDW...the best time in the world! Don't get to go this year, but went Nov 2012. Going again Oct/Nov 2014! Cant wait to read more!

 

[teekathepony]

Just found your TR and I love it! Thanks for the camera tips! Trying to learn!
I love November at WDW...the best time in the world! Don't get to go this year, but went Nov 2012. Going again Oct/Nov 2014! Cant wait to read more!

thanks for stopping by!! I hope I can give a few easy tips to help people get better Disney pictures because if there's one thing I love, it's Disney pictures!
We've been dreaming of November in Disney since 2010! It was just so magical!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

OK Wendy... I'm finally here my little Scotia friend!!

AKL... OK I'm seriously jealous. So glad to finally be all caught up and ready for more.

 

[teekathepony]

OK Wendy... I'm finally here my little Scotia friend!!

AKL... OK I'm seriously jealous. So glad to finally be all caught up and ready for more.

YAY! So glad to have you Rob!

 

[amazingact21]

So glad to see you got the BoG reservation!!! I'm sure you are going to love your meal there, and I can't wait to see your photos of the restaurant!

Enjoyed your photography tips. Won't lie, I happened to glance over at my Sony and turn it on to check out the aperture sizes on the various settings. I know which ones to use on dark rides/blurry backgrounds/etc just never knew the technicalities behind it. Thank you for educating me!

 

[jenniferreich]

Hi! I'm so happy for you and look forward to hearing more about your trip! We are going the same time Nov 9 to 15, and also staying at AKL!

I also booked our ADRs, but didn't get Be our guest because for some odd reason I couldn't book online, had to call, and Be our guest was booked. No worries, we'll just go there for lunch instead.

Here are our adrs:
arrival day: tour resort, DTD: Jiko
Legoland day: Sanaa
MK day: Plaza Restaurant (we'll pay OOP to make up for 2-credit Jiko)
AK day: Tusker House (breaking from our tradition of Yak & Yeti!)
EP day: Coral Reef
HS day: TRex (same day and time as you--please stop by if you'd like if you see us!)

Best wishes for fun planning and a terrific trip! Jennifer

 

[natebenma]

Wendy!

Remember me???

So sorry I have been absent from your PTR! April and May just really ran me ragged! Most of it good things (Two theatre productions for my son, way too much volunteer stuff at the middle school, some sad stuff). But I just caught up and read through your updates and I LOVE IT!!!

Thanks for the introduction to your menagerie! Your horses, dogs and cats are all so beautiful! So cute that Teeka and Sheeka have similar names. Jumping ahead, but I was so relieved to hear Sheeka's knee seems to be better. Is that still the case?

I am so glad you are going to Disney this year, even though it means you are missing out on Germany. But it sounds like there was no way around it, so you might as well look for the silver lining!

Speaking of silver linings- AKL- AWESOME!!!

on your air miles. The "We can fly" GIF has been my favorite so far.

Your ADR anxiety cracked me up. I didn't even have to get depressed about your initial difficulty getting Be Our Guest! By the time I finally read- you had it!!!



I really love your dining lineup. You have a lot of my favorites and many of the places that we have picked for our short 4 night trip in July.

Boma- breakfast- not doing it this year, but my favorite memory is a bored waiter bringing over a heaping plateful of bacon to my son.

Boma- dinner- my favorite Disney meal

Kona- breakfast- we have this in July- my favorite thing to eat in Disney is here. Not the Tonga Toast, but the TT gets everyone else there.

Sci Fi- the one place the boys requested

T-Rex- love the atmosphere and the ginormous portions of delicious food. Suprised to discover that it is now on the dining plan!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for the photo lessons. I got a big girl camera for Christmas, the Canon Rebel T3. I can hardly wait to learn all about it, but I have been so freaking busy these past few months that I haven't had a chance to play with it. I will be reading your tips RELIGIOUSLY!!!

I will also try to do a better job keeping up with your report now that I am caught up.

 

[teekathepony]

So glad to see you got the BoG reservation!!! I'm sure you are going to love your meal there, and I can't wait to see your photos of the restaurant!

Enjoyed your photography tips. Won't lie, I happened to glance over at my Sony and turn it on to check out the aperture sizes on the various settings. I know which ones to use on dark rides/blurry backgrounds/etc just never knew the technicalities behind it. Thank you for educating me!

I can't wait to get inside BOG for myself.
You're welcome, and what can I say I love to talk cameras!

Hi! I'm so happy for you and look forward to hearing more about your trip! We are going the same time Nov 9 to 15, and also staying at AKL!

I also booked our ADRs, but didn't get Be our guest because for some odd reason I couldn't book online, had to call, and Be our guest was booked. No worries, we'll just go there for lunch instead.

Here are our adrs:
arrival day: tour resort, DTD: Jiko
Legoland day: Sanaa
MK day: Plaza Restaurant (we'll pay OOP to make up for 2-credit Jiko)
AK day: Tusker House (breaking from our tradition of Yak & Yeti!)
EP day: Coral Reef
HS day: TRex (same day and time as you--please stop by if you'd like if you see us!)

Best wishes for fun planning and a terrific trip! Jennifer

Holy cow! Almost the same trip! Do you have a PTR going? I'd love to follow along! Likewise if you see us in TRex come say hello!

Wendy!

Remember me???

Dee!! I'm so happy to see you here!

So sorry I have been absent from your PTR! April and May just really ran me ragged! Most of it good things (Two theatre productions for my son, way too much volunteer stuff at the middle school, some sad stuff). But I just caught up and read through your updates and I LOVE IT!!!

I'm glad to hear it was mostly good things, and sorry for the sad stuff. Life does that sometimes though, but when you can say the good outweighed the bad, that's a pretty good outcome.

Thanks for the introduction to your menagerie! Your horses, dogs and cats are all so beautiful! So cute that Teeka and Sheeka have similar names. Jumping ahead, but I was so relieved to hear Sheeka's knee seems to be better. Is that still the case?

It is still the case! She gets a tiny bit better every day. Yesterday she walked all the way up the driveway and through the lawn a little on four legs! She limps heavily on it but the fact that she's using it is miles and miles better than when it happened last year.

I am so glad you are going to Disney this year, even though it means you are missing out on Germany. But it sounds like there was no way around it, so you might as well look for the silver lining!

Speaking of silver linings- AKL- AWESOME!!!

Silver linings indeed, we pretty much knew when it turned out that Germany wouldn't work there was no other place we would rather go right now. We do have a Mediterranean cruise in our minds for some future horizon but it's just too hard to say no to Disney!
And AKL? I can't even believe I'm going there!!

on your air miles. The "We can fly" GIF has been my favorite so far.

We are now up to 2,670 miles collected! 1342 to go! So much better (read: on the wallet) to fly with AirMiles!

Your ADR anxiety cracked me up. I didn't even have to get depressed about your initial difficulty getting Be Our Guest! By the time I finally read- you had it!!!

Sometimes I get so nervous about things I think I should be sedated. I do wish I could be more relaxed but I'm just not programmed that way! Oh well, I got the ressie, what else would I do with my time if I didn't worry? (As an aside, my jury duty was postponed until mid-June so now I have to worry about THAT for another three weeks! )

I really love your dining lineup. You have a lot of my favorites and many of the places that we have picked for our short 4 night trip in July.

Boma- breakfast- not doing it this year, but my favorite memory is a bored waiter bringing over a heaping plateful of bacon to my son.
- Johnny would LOVE that! Hahaha

Boma- dinner- my favorite Disney meal
- Ohhh glad to hear, it looks and sounds good!

Kona- breakfast- we have this in July- my favorite thing to eat in Disney is here. Not the Tonga Toast, but the TT gets everyone else there.
-That's right, you like the macadamia nut pancakes, am I right?

Sci Fi- the one place the boys requested
- My boy too!

T-Rex- love the atmosphere and the ginormous portions of delicious food. Suprised to discover that it is now on the dining plan!
-I've heard that about the portions being really big, I eat like a bird so that doesn't do much for me but Johnny will like it. And delicious food is good! I was surprised to see it on the dining plan too, I didn't trust myself so I checked it four times!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for the photo lessons. I got a big girl camera for Christmas, the Canon Rebel T3. I can hardly wait to learn all about it, but I have been so freaking busy these past few months that I haven't had a chance to play with it. I will be reading your tips RELIGIOUSLY!!!

I will also try to do a better job keeping up with your report now that I am caught up.

Nice! The Canon Rebels are all such nice cameras. I really love them! Stay tuned for lesson 2 this morning (hoping I get time! we're off on adventures today!)
Again, so happy to see you here and yayyy for being all caught up!

 

[starbound25]

SO happy to learn some photography tips!
I have a Canon Rebel XT (that I wish I could upgrade) but I rarely use it since I don't know how to get the most out of it!
I have been doing research for days now since I just got a new Canon P&S camera, Powershot SX280 HS, I want to get the most out of it by using the manual settings but its very confusing!
I understand the aspects of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO its just combining them and how to make them all work together is where I get lost!

I also just ordered a 50mm lens for my Canon Rebel because I LOVE the look of Bokeh photography!!!

 

[teekathepony]

Hey everybody!
It's a long weekend here in Canada today -- Victoria Day! It's 8:15AM and already sunny and bright. I'm waiting for Johnny to wake up so we can head to the wildlife park with our cameras. They have brand new wolf pups and lynx cubs!

Today's PTR installment is called, "To Plan To Dine". As you know I have already made my ADRs, so of course I plan to dine! Of course I make plans! What does this mean?

Disney Dining Plan.

Of course we are hoping for some type of promotion to come out for November, be it a room discount or free dining, but we didn't want to bank on it. Before we booked, we had to decide something -- if we don't get free dining, will we pay for it?

Out come the lists! Out comes the clipboard! Open is Allears.net!

We figured out a rough table service, counter service, and snack for each day of our stay paying oop. Here's a sample day:

Lunch: Cosmic Ray's
$8.69 x 2 (entree)
$2.59 x 2 (drink)
(no dessert)
= $21.38

+

Dinner: Be Our Guest
$29.99 (entree)
$15.99 (entree)
$2.99 x 2 (drink)
$3.99 x 2 (dessert)
= $59.94

+

Allow ~ $10 for snacks


Total cost of food for that day = $82 for both of us.
Total cost of one day on meal plan = $112 for both of us.

You can see on this day, it worked out cheaper to pay oop.

In another example however, it was $14.94 more to pay oop. In the end, tallying everything up, paying oop was $55.94 cheaper than the dining plan. Take away $30 for two refill mugs and paying is only $25.97 cheaper.

$25 is not that much in the difference. And that's taking into account sometimes sharing a drink or skipping dessert. I don't want to have to worry about the prices of things! And I will. In this family, I'm the Scrooge!

I'd be likely to say "I'll just get the side salad" thinking of the cost of everything. It's a terrible way to be, but I can't help it!

So for the sake of $25, we went ahead and booked the meal plan. Now we're hoping for a room discount to come out and we'll be all set!



****************************************************

Photography 101
Lesson 2: Shutter speed


Last week I wrote about Aperture, this week's lesson is all about the shutter.

Shutter is probably a more familiar term for most people. Basically speaking, it's the device that opens to allow light to hit the film or sensor, thereby exposing an image. The longer that shutter is open, the more light gets in. The downside to a longer shutter speed is that while the shutter is open, objects and the photographer are moving creating blur in the image. (Sometimes that's a good thing!)

Slow shutter speed (1/60s or slower) = lets in more light (use in dark situations)
Fast shutter speed (1/200s or faster) = lets in less light (use in bright situations, to stop motion)

Most cameras have a very wide range of shutter speeds, usually as slow as 30 seconds (VERY long, for dark night exposures with a tripod!) to 1/4000 of a second (VERY fast, for bright situations and very fast subjects).

A general rule of thumb is that a human can not hand hold a camera steady enough any slower than 1/60 so that should be a goal to keep in mind when you're not using a tripod - don't let it go slower than that. If your subject is moving, you should speed that up. Another rule of thumb is that your focal length should roughly match your shutter speed (i.e. if you are zoomed out to 200mm, you can't hand hold slower than 1/200s) Now, the popularization of stabilized cameras and lenses allows for some slower shutter speeds to be used when necessary, but you shouldn't rely on that too much. Learn the rules (then you can break them!)

So we know that a slow shutter speed creates blur. When might you want a slow shutter speed? I'll give you two examples.

#1 - Soft moving water.

Everyone wants to know how to get that slow, soft water shot.



This was shot without a tripod, but I steadied my camera on a ledge. Shutter speed here was 1/5 of a second - very slow. You can see how there's no individual water droplets but a soft stream instead.

This similar shot was shot at 1/200s, stopping the water for a much less pleasing look:



#2 - Fireworks

Ahh yes. How to get a good fireworks picture. The key is in a tripod (or something to stabilize your camera) and a slow shutter speed.


Untitled by teekathepony, on Flickr

This image was taken with a 30 second shutter. That's a long time for the shutter to be open! It allows the camera to expose while the bursts are moving, resulting in those great colourful lines. My aperture was f14 - small, so as not to over expose the castle during the long shutter.

I'll end it there for now, I hope that gives you a better idea of what the shutter is and how it works. As always please ask if you have questions!

 

[MEK]

I hear you on the dining plan. I think its much easier to have the freedom to order what you want and not worry about the cost. Without the dining plan I tend to be more frugal with my choices and I don't like worry about that. Good decision.

Another great photography lesson. Since I am now flying to Florida I likely will not take my tripod. I really was hoping to use it this time, but its just too annoying to pack. I'll need to find a makeshift stabilizer I guess.

 

[geckodani]

We do the same thing with the dining plan. I'd still order whatever I want, but DH stresses about the cost and won't, and Mom stresses and then tries to pay, which is unacceptable, so I just get the DDP up front and then she has no choice in the matter. We might save a little OOP, but it's not enough to be worth the added stress.

 

[MrsDrewsky]

Hi Wendy! I have been lurking for awhile, but I wanted to finally join in. Your photography lessons are great. We just bought our first DSLR and we have no idea how to use it.

 

[IheartDDuck]

I love your photo tips! My oldest brother is the photography guy in our family. I'm the point and shoot kind, but I'm totally fine with that.

I actually operate both ways, with and without dining plan. This time, we're not doing it. Main reason is because I've completely changed my eating habits, and I don't want to be forced into a dessert. I want to choose my desserts and snacks when I want them, not because I have to. But other than that, I normally love using the dining plan. It just takes the guesswork out of it.

 

[chattadisser]

I just wanted to thank you for the photography lesson. I found it from MEK's TR and this is just what I have been searching for. I have a Canon XT that I am hoping to upgrade to the T4i before our next trip. I've been really happy with this camera and it has served me well but I'd like to be able to do more and I'm going to pass it on to my oldest who is developing an interest in photography.

I have played with the settings before and even gone to a basic photography class but I think it makes the most sense when explained in relationship to Disney! What to use on dark rides vs. fireworks, ect. It is so helpful, I've actually printed it out so I can have it for reference as I sit and play with the settings. As others have mentioned, between keeping track of everyone on vacation and playing tour guide, there isn't a lot of time to keep changing settings but to know about how to actually get pictures in the dark rides and at night is a step in the right direction!

You will love AKL, I was hesitant the first time we stayed there as people always complain about the buses. We have stayed there three times now and I haven't felt like the transportation was any different there than anywhere else. It is so beautiful and relaxing!

Christine